Northern Pacific

Northern Pacific

I completed a new edition today. Northern Pacific is an image of a railroad drawbridge, in the raised position, near the Port of Seattle. It is a three plate color woodcut. All three plates are 1/2″ MDF, sealed with shellac, a thin coat of acrylic gesso and then a second coat of shellac applied after cutting. It is printed on Rives BFK, 280 gsm weight. The paper is 22×30. The inks are Lithographic inks from Hanschy, Graphic Chemical and Daniel Smith, modified with 00 Burnt Plate Oil and a touch of Cobalt Drier. The colors were printed on three consecutive days.

I used a new punch registration system on this print, with excellent results. It is far easier for one person to handle than the pin system I have been using and appears to hold a tighter tolerance as well. The specific approach I am using does not require trimming the paper after printing, so the deckle is preserved. I will describe the system in detail in another post in a few days.